The publisher of the fake news medium, Reportera, Mr. Nnamdi Emmanuel Ibezim who is in hiding following a petition by the former Lagos State Governor and Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN against Reportera and its publisher/owner over a defamatory and false publication has appealed for donations to assist him get a legal representation for his brother and an Editor of Reportera, Chike Ibezim who was allegedly arrested by the police in his stead.
Mr. Nnamdi Ibezim’s fake news blog had published separate news articles alleging that the former Governor of Lagos State was writing judgement for the Justices of the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal. Babatunde Fashola SAN subsequently wrote a petition against Reportera and two other individuals who were the arrowheads of the defamatory story.
The police allegedly came to effect his arrest but could not find him and instead met and arrested his brother who is also linked to the fake news blog as one of the Editors. Mr. Nnamdi Ibezim initially accused the DSS of being behind the arrest of his brother. DSS issued a statement stating that Chike Ibezim is not in their custody. It was later gathered that it was the police who effected the arrest.
Since then, Mr. Nnamdi Ibezim has refused to turn himself in to the police to respond to the petition by Babatunde Fashola, SAN, rather he started a social media campaign calling for the unconditional release of his brother.
He has now taken that campaign to another level by soliciting for financial contributions from his supporters, mostly Obidients, in what many have called out as a clear scheme by Mr. Nnamdi Ibezim to take advantage of his self-inflicted predicament to milk unsuspecting members of the public.
In a twitter post on Saturday on his handle @IruefiNg, Mr. Nnamdi Ibezim stated: “After much deliberations with friends and supporters of Justice for Chike, we decided that the best thing to do at this point is to call on all well-meaning Nigerians to pool resources for legal representation for Chike & Nnamdi so as to take on the police and all other parties responsible for this rascality.”
“May God bless everyone who has supported and lent their voice to this course.”
The Reportera publisher gave out an Access Bank account number with the account name Agu Chukwuebuka Paschal to house potential donations.